We Didn't Know the Words to the Song
by Stelena-Beautiful
Summary: 10 drabbles based on an "IPod Shuffle" challenge. Multiple characters and couples are featured but it is very Pete/Addison-friendly. Happy reading.


**We Didn't Know the Words to the Song …**

_**Set sometime in Season 4. Ten drabbles. Has a lot of Paddison!**_

**Playlist:**  
Track 1. _Irreplaceable_ - Beyonce - A song for Del Parker (may he R.I.P.)  
Track 2. _Will You Still Love Me?_ - Chicago - Addie and Pete  
Track 3. _We Danced Anyway_ - Deana Carter - Addie and Sam  
Track 4. _Not Afraid_ - Eminem - Amelia and Sheldon  
Track 5. _Sunshine and Summertime_ - Faith Hill - Charlotte and Cooper  
Track 6. _Like We Never Loved At All_ - Faith Hill - Violet  
Track 7. _So Yesterday_ - Hilary Duff - Naomi and Fife  
Track 8. _Mad World_ - Adam Lambert - Violet and Pete's breaksong  
Track 9. _Breakdown Here_ - Julie Roberts - Addison and Derek (crossover)  
Track 10. _Teenage Dream_ - Katy Perry - Amelia

-

**Track 1**

The chair he always used to sit in during their office meetings remained untouched. One time the new doctor at Ocean Wellness had tried to sit in it and they had all jumped to their feet lightning-fast, screaming at him to pick another chair. He had looked startled and they had apologized and explained the situation as best as they possibly could. He pretended to understand while they all pretended that they could actually get over this anytime soon. But they knew deep down they couldn't because Del Parker had been one of a kind, truly irreplaceable, and he had died under their watch. Not one of them would ever forget how he had depended on them and how they each felt they had failed him in different ways.

So his chair remained unoccupied, his favorite surf board stood propped in the corner like a shrine never to be touched, and they all kept pretending they were actually coping with their colleague and good friend's untimely death.

-

**Track 2**

She watched him under her thick auburn eyelashes as he bounced too-big-really-to-be-bounded Lucas joyfully on his knee. Lucas didn't seem to mind though; the little boy was laughing happily. He had the same smile on his face as his father. Just like his dad, he was going to grow up to be a heartbreaker.

She wondered if Pete ever thought about them. They were at a company Labor Day picnic but for whatever reason she couldn't stop staring at him, wondering deep down if he ever thought about what they used to be to each other. What they could have been to each other if they had only been willing to tough it out.

At first they had gotten along just fine after he married Violet, like good buddies really who had never kissed or made love or felt anything romantic for each other, and now there was a sudden, sad and empty space between them. She wondered if he ever really understood how much she had wanted things to work out between them; how much she had actually really loved him.

He looked up just then, seeming to feel her eyes on him from across the courtyard, and he offered her a little smile and a wave. She smiled back as best as she could manage. And then he gave her a look that said more than any words ever could. He did understand. He understood just exactly how she felt because he had felt the same way. He still did. But he had chosen safety and security and she had chosen her best friend's ex and they had to live with their choices now.

-

**Track 3**

Sam noticed the way Addison was watching Pete and he sighed and forced the hot dog he was eating down his throat. It felt hard and uncomfortable inside his stomach but he came up with a fake smile for Violet at least. After all, she had been watching him very curiously, maybe trying to figure out if he had also noticed the electricity buzzing between the significant others in their life. He shrugged, offered her another smile and moved over to Addison.

"Dance with me," he whispered in her ear.

"What?" Addison asked. "Are you serious? There's no music ..."

"Who cares? We can dance without it."

Addison smiled. "Alright if you insist."

"I do," he said. She stood and stepped into his arms and they slow-danced right there in front of everyone. Addison would not realize until later that it was the last dance she would be having with Sam ever again. That right now he just wanted to memorize her - memorize everything that made her so distinctly Addison - one last time before he set her free.

-

**Track 4**

"I saw you looking at Sheldon again during the staff meeting," Addison said to her as soon as she walked into Addison's office and slipped onto the edge of Addie's desk for their daily chat session right before lunch. They used to have lunch together but ever since Amelia took to smoking in public, Addison wouldn't go anywhere with her where Amelia could sit out doors and puff on a cigarette.

Amelia shifted on the desk uncomfortably. "What's your point, Addison?" she asked.

"The point is that he's a very prestigious professional in his field. He's nice and he's caring. He's actually quite a catch and-"

"Oh and you think because I happened to look at him for like two seconds that I'm into him?"

"You said it. Not me."

"Oh come on, Addison, it's not like that. He had a new haircut and -"

"I didn't even notice."

Amelia rolled her eyes. "You are making too much out of this. Curious that you noticed me watching him but you didn't notice he trimmed his sideburns about an inch on each side and that it shows more of his face and -" Amelia's voice trailed off. "Oh god. Is it really possible? Am I actually kind of am attracted to Sheldon?"

"Yeah who would have thunk it?" Addison teased. "But you have to do something about it, okay?"

"What?!"

"Tell him how you feel. Don't wait too long like I did because I was afraid. Yeah even the great big Addison Forbes Montgomery gets scared sometimes. The point is, don't miss an opportunity like this, Amelia. Carpe diem and all that. Or you will regret it. I promise you that."

-

**Track 5**

"Come on, Charlotte, it's a picnic. Just a picnic. It's labor day. You've been sitting in that chair staring blankly out the window for seemingly forever. Just get up and throw something on and we'll get going. The sun is shining, the air is clean and filled with possibilities and -"

"Bull," Charlotte said. "There are no possibilities for me anymore."

"Charlotte, please. Just come with me. Everyone at OW misses the hell out of you. You have to come."

"I don't have to. And more importantly, I don't want to."

"Don't make me pick you up and toss you over my shoulder and carry you out of here in your pajamas."

"Don't you dare, Coop. What are you - a caveman?" Charlotte snapped. "I've had enough guys manhandling me to last a damn lifetime."

"Sorry. God I didn't even think before I -" His voice trailed off.

Charlotte went to snap back a harsh reply but then she happened to see the look of pure shame and sadness in his big brown eyes. This was costing him so much too.

She sighed and stood up.

"Going somewhere?"

"Yeah I have to change. I can't go out in my smelly 'ol pjs," she said. "We're going to this picnic shindig and we're gunna have a ball."

"We don't have to."

"Coop, you want to and I personally want to want something again. So yes, we have to go. I am going to beat this thing, Coop, I swear. Don't worry about me."

"I can't help it."

"I know. Cause you are a good man. I know lately I tend to lump all of the opposite sex in all one shitty category but, Coop, you don't belong there. You're very much a cut above the rest and I am going to remember that from now on."

She smiled then. "Now let's get moving before I put you over my own shoulder and haul you out of here. Don't think I can't do it too, Coop. I'm a lot stronger than I look."

Cooper nodded. "Yeah, Charlotte, yeah you are."

-

**Track 6**

After the picnic, Pete and Violet put an already sleeping Lucas into his car seat and hopped into their car. Violet rested her head against the window immediately and feigned sleep. She didn't want to talk to Pete right now. She shouldn't or she would say something she regretted. She was a therapist and knew bottling up feelings, particularly anger, was not a good thing. But if she started to vent now she wouldn't want to stop. She had seen the way Pete and Addison had looked at each other all day and worse, she knew others had as well.

Pete said nothing to her, just hummed along to some seventies group on the stereo. Then when they were a few blocks from home (she peeked!), he reached out and squeezed her arm. "What's going on with you today? I know you're not really asleep because you're not snoring so -"

Violet shot open her eyelids. "Pete, I just have to know. Was this ever real? This marriage? This relationship? Did you ever love me at all or has it always been about Addison?"

"Violet-"

"You love her Pete. Everyone and anyone can see that. I don't know why I deluded myself into thinking you could ever care about me -""

"I do care about you!"

"But you love Addison, Pete, you love Addison. I can't be with someone who only wants me because he can't have the one he thinks he really belongs with."

"You're talking nonsense now."

"Sorry, Pete, but no. Call me crazy if you want to but I know you love Addison and I am not sure honestly, that I can personally live with that."

-

**Track 7**

It had been ages since she had seen this man. Going on a whole year actually. She would have liked to believe she didn't care that he showed up here just because Pete had invited him. That she didn't care that he showed up with a beautiful, white blonde woman in her twenties who hung on his every word. She should have never learned to like him. Want him. She should have been over these feelings by now. No yesterday. A year ago. She never should have liked the man to begin with!

She would never admit it but there was a part of her that was very drawn to Fife. Okay, a huge part.

He looked at her all of once and she offered him a little half-hearted shrug before turning around to start devouring the chocolate cake she had made for everyone to enjoy. If she could bury her face in the layers of cake the way she did every year on her birthday, then she could possibly bury her feelings as well.

-

**Track 8**

He watched her stuffing her duffle bag and he knew he should stop her but he honestly could not find the right words. She deserved to hear that he was deeply in love with her. That he hadn't married her just because she was the mother of his child and because he had been rebounding. He wanted to say all those things and make them both believe it but he didn't have the energy to lie anymore. He loved Addison. It was wrong in some people's eyes maybe and they could honestly fizzle out so fast once again, but he loved her and only her. He had been stupid to involve Violet in this little soap opera drama of his. It was craziness, it was madness really, but he had done it because he thought he should. Not because he had honestly ever wanted to.

She finished stuffing the duffle. "Where are you going?" He asked, speaking for the first time.

She shrugged and he said, "Walk out on me, okay? Yes, I deserve it. But Lucas - Lucas loves you. You're his mom."

"I know. I care about him too. I'll come back soon, I will. I just need some time to gain some clarity. This is the best way I know how."

"Running halfway around the world?"

She just pushed past him and he should have tried to stop her but he just couldn't make himself chase after her. They were over. They had actually been that way before they really ever began.

-

**Track 9**

Her fingers lingered over the numbers on the phone pad and she looked at Pete for help. He offered her a smile. "You can do it," he said encouragingly.

"I don't know if I can. Honestly I just... I am worried he is going to see this as some kind of desperate attempt to make him jealous or win him back."

"If he thinks that then, Addie, he never knew you at all."

Addison nodded as she felt Pete's lips come to rest in the crook of her neck. She leaned into him. He was right. Derek should know better by now. He should know she was okay and that she wasn't going to fall apart again, not over him or anyone else. She was stronger now than she ever had been. No breakdowns here; definitely not.

She called him and he picked up after three rings. She could hear Meredith giggling in the background and she would have hated that before but now she was actually glad he had someone he felt that way about. The same way she felt about Pete, her fiancé.

She told Derek he would have no more alimony payments and he just laughed. Then he asked quietly, "Does this guy treat you right, Addie?"

Addison looked up at Pete and smiled. "Yeah, Derek, he does. And I love him so much for it."

-

**Track 10**

She cringed as she tried on the dress and glanced over at Addison. "God, Addie, I would have thought you of all people would have better taste than this. I mean, pink chiffon bridesmaid dresses?"

Addison nodded. "They're not so bad."

"You're right. They're worse. Like a prom night fantasy gone horribly wrong. Even the teenage me wouldn't wear this."

"You've always been rebellious, that's why. But honestly, I just want everything to be really traditional this time. And that means picking out bridesmaid dresses with lots of bright color and ruffles."

"You didn't try that with my brother."

"I know. He never would have let me hear the end of it, sadly. But Pete. Well, he thinks it's hilarious."

Amelia scoffed. "I am so glad you can laugh at your bridal party's humiliation this way."

Addison shrugged. "Tell you what. If you make it through the wedding in that dress for me, I swear I'll throw you the bouquet."

"Why would I seriously want it?"

"You and Sheldon..."

"We're not even like halfway to that point, Addison. We're taking it really, really slow."

"I'm still tossing it to you."

"Don't you dare!"

"I do dare, Am. I dare you to be happy with the man you love. That's not as easy as it sounds but honest to god, it's so unbelievingly worth it..."

THE END


End file.
